Steve Robbins

Steve Robbins was the airport kid, that kid who rode his bicycle to the little airport at the edge of an Ohio town and hung out. He’d found his place. What came first was an avocation, then an enjoyable 32-year career at US Airways. After retirement a chance meeting with the pilot/owner of a CitationJet led to an adventurous second career of corporate flying in Cessna Citations. He has now gone back to his roots, a grass runway in the country where he flies a Cherokee 140. He feels he is damn lucky to be there.

We know that mechanical things fail, people make mistakes and aviation, like the sea, is inherently unforgiving of failure or mistake. That thought was on my mind recently when we took off from Burlington, Vermont, aboard a classic old airplane, a twin engine DC-3 built in 1945. We were headed for Europe, but less than three hours later, in a flash event, both the failure and the mistake happened at the same time.

Write For Us

Did you know that most of the articles at Air Facts are written by readers like you? You do not have to be Richard Collins or Ernest Gann--simply a GA pilot with a story you'd share with friends sitting in the hangar. Share your experience on any aspect of GA transportation flying, whether for business or pleasure. Photos are an added bonus.

About Air Facts

Air Facts was first published in 1938 by Leighton Collins, dedicated to “the development of private air transportation.” It’s a different world now, and it’s a different Air Facts. Relaunched in 2011 as an online journal, Air Facts still champions, educates, informs and entertains pilots worldwide with real-world flying experiences.

Email Newsletter

Join thousands of other pilots - sign up for our informative email newsletter. It's completely free, and we will not share your information with anyone.